After the poorly received 'Hana Moyu', the producers of 2016's year- long Taiga drama have brought out the big guns in the shape of Sanada Maru (named after the small fortification built by Sanada Yukimura to defend Osaka Castle during the Winter Battle of Osaka in 1615). The drama starts with the turmoil of the Sengoku Period and the struggle of the relatively small Sanada clan to survive after the collapse of the Takeda and charts the fate of the Sanada during the rise of OdaNobunaga, the primacy of the Toyotomi and the power shift to the Tokugawa. Masao Kusakari (who played Sanada Yukimura in the brilliant 1985 drama "Sanada Taiheiki") excels as the wily Masayuki while there are welcome taiga returns to Seiyo Uchino (as Tokugawa Ieyasu) who previously played Yamamoto Kansuke in "Furin Kazan" and Fumiyo Kohinata (as Toyotomi Hideyoshi) who played Suwa Yorishige in the same series. All in all a really well-cast drama with amazing costumes and an excellent soundtrack based around a virtuoso violinist. One of the great stories in Japanese history. Highly Recommended.